Cops catch counterfeiters

FEDERAL police seized more than 15,000 suspected counterfeit DVDs and 53 DVD burners from a Springvale business last Thursday.
They charged a 34-year-old Clayton man on 7 November following a nine-month investigation into the business which they allege had been manufacturing and selling pirated DVDs worth about $300,000 a year.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) Detective Superintendent Ian Bate said the large-scale counterfeit DVD business was making a substantial profit each year through copyright theft.
“The AFP takes these large-scale cases of copyright theft very seriously and this should be a warning to others who may be manufacturing and selling counterfeit goods that you are likely to get caught out,” he said.
The man will answer one count each of commercial-scale infringement prejudicing copyright owner, making infringing copy commercially, selling or hiring out infringing copy, possessing infringing copy for commerce, and making or possessing a device for making infringing copy.
AFP also charged him with dealing with money or property from proceeds of crime worth $100,000 or more.
The maximum penalty for these offences is five years’ imprisonment.